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The coronavirus pandemic brought an end to the traditional classroom setting, compelling teachers and educators to innovate and embrace technology. However, is technology-driven learning a concept exclusive to the arrival of the pandemic? Not entirely.
Innovative and tech-driven learning solutions arrived long before the pandemic, creating flexibility and convenience for millions of students worldwide. Teachers and educators actively explore and formulate techniques to make learning experiences innovative, immersive, and interactive. The traditional classroom model started crumbling years ago, forcing educators to find new ways to build and sustain student engagement.
How can educators make teaching more innovative? Innovation doesn’t necessarily refer only to the adoption of technologies and digital mediums. It also includes the adoption of advanced approaches, ground-breaking strategies, and new thought processes. It involves techniques powered by collaborative and adaptive learning and flipping the classroom to promote cognitive growth.
Keep reading to explore viable techniques that allow educators to make learning experiences innovatively immersive.
- Making Learning Environments Accessible & Flexible
Learning experiences are increasingly powered by digital media that eliminate barriers, creating educational opportunities for students worldwide. Students no longer face barriers that existed with the traditional classrooms that demanded physical presence. Today, students enjoy the flexibility of eLearning environments to pursue their academic interests with enhanced accessibility.
Students no longer have to take out hefty student debt loans or enroll themselves in prestigious organizations for lengthy programs. Instead, they can pursue their academic interests from the confines of their homes, juggling academic and professional responsibilities with seamless ease.
Suppose you’re a budding history enthusiast with a full-time job looking to switch careers and pursue historical research endeavors. In that case, you can earn a history degree online without quitting your job or shouldering enormously burdensome costs. The eLearning environments allow flexibility and convenience, and educators must embrace them to facilitate academic excellence.
Educators can use eLearning tools to eliminate barriers in the pursuit of education, creating scores of opportunities for avid learners. Teaching techniques have evolved exponentially, and educators must digitalize the classroom. Fluid, flexible, and accessible eLearning spaces allow students to foster independent thinking and enjoy one-on-one learning experiences.
- Let’s Flip the Classroom
Passionate educators and teachers are always cooking up out-of-the-box strategies to enrich learning experiences with diversity. How can teachers move past traditional classroom settings and boring lectures to nurture impressionable young minds? It’s simple: let’s flip the classroom.
But what does flipping the classroom mean? It’s a strategy that encourages the cognitive quest of inquiry, motivating students to analyze and apply their knowledge. It engages learners by grasping their needs and fostering the curiosity to explore, discover, and learn. Essentially, teachers pack up their courses with a wealth of out-of-class material.
This material involves readings, video-based lectures, short films, research assignments, history tours, and real-world exposure. Teachers fascinate their students with various material that inspires cognitive growth, compelling them to think, analyze, and form constructive opinions. Instead of boring students with lectures containing information they can read up, teachers get creative with their course materials.
They can explore collaborative learning strategies, group projects, and individual research to encourage analysis and discoveries. What’s the outcome that teachers seek to achieve with such an unconventional strategy? Teachers who regularly flip the classroom encourage analytical reasoning, allowing students to apply their knowledge to the complexities of real-world problems.
- Personalizing the Learning Experience
Modern-day education sectors are more attuned to the demands, needs, and preferences of the learners. Teachers must adapt and embrace learning modes and mediums preferred by their students to ensure engagement and interaction. Educators are rapidly tailoring learning experiences to address the needs and preferences of the individual.
How can educators personalize learning experiences? There are various approaches to tailoring the educational experiences of each student.
For instance, adaptive learning technologies allow teachers to tailor their approaches with data-driven insights. These technologies analyze learners’ behaviors and preferences, generating actionable insights to tailor learning experiences. Adaptive learning technologies allow teachers to obtain data-driven insights and feedback to personalize the learner’s experiences.
Blended learning is another popular and effective educational strategy to boost student engagement and interaction. It revolves around blending various teaching methods to make students more responsible for their educational experiences. For instance, teachers do not dictate instructions but instead encourage discovery, analytical reasoning, and cognitive growth. Students decide their own pace and preferred learning materials, carving out learning experiences based on their preferences.
- Encouraging Collaborative Student Engagement
Collaborative or project-based learning is a powerful educational trend that encourages the development of analytical competencies. Essentially, this learning strategy prepares students for lucrative professional growth and career advancement. It encourages competencies that allow students to work as valuable and collaborative team players.
Collaborative student engagement techniques expose students to real-world challenges, preparing them for real-world settings. Teachers introduce students to complex challenges, encouraging the development of communication, problem-solving and analytical skills. Such learning strategies also teach discipline, self-accountability, and management competencies.
- Introducing Students to Inspiring Leaders
Students often feel overwhelmed by the prospects of earning a living and adopting career paths that promise financial stability. Teachers need to inspire a love for learning so their students do not regard education as a vehicle to earn an income. Inviting successful business owners, innovators, restauranteers, artists, and musicians to the classroom is an excellent approach.
Educators can connect with different professionals to introduce their students to a wealth of lucrative career paths. This strategy allows impressionable young minds to comprehend the power of passion, dedication, discipline, and hard work. Ditching lectures for fascinating panel discussions and career-related discourses will help students map out their journey.
- Mind-Boggling Jigsaw Puzzles
Should teachers encourage their students to start playing jigsaw puzzles instead of covering course materials? Yes, but not quite exactly. You see, the jigsaw approach is a powerful and age-old teaching method that fosters cooperative learning. It allows students to map out their journey and achieve cognitive growth by using their mental capabilities.
Teachers divide students into various groups, giving each group a piece of information. Each group must perform research to learn about their allocated topic and teach it to other groups. This approach allows each student to feel like an expert in the topics given to their group.
Conclusion
Innovating the learning experience requires teachers to undertake a mindset makeover. Educators who are grounded and stubbornly clinging to traditional practices will find this increasingly challenging. However, educators who wish to innovate and offer enriching learning experiences actively embrace strategies that allow them to grow professionally.